ioo PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



the rites. It seems that on the whole the explanation 

 of the fires given by Mannhardt and Frazer is the 

 true one, namely, "that they are sun-charms or 

 magical ceremonies intended to secure a proper supply 

 of sunshine for men, animals and plants." Such fires 

 are mimetic rites. The power ascribed to them of 

 bringing about the occurrence which they mimic, 

 namely, the supply of sunshine, would, by a confusion 

 of thought common to magic, be extended and identified 

 with the power of the sun itself. Contact with them, 

 therefore, or with the smoke or embers, or with torches 

 kindled at them, would produce the same effect as 

 exposure to the rays of the sun. We have seen that 

 the sun is believed to fertilise not merely the fields 

 but human beings also, and that marriage rites and 

 not improbably puberty ceremonies have reference 

 to this belief a belief, moreover, of which expression 

 is found in many of the stories. We accordingly 

 conclude that these fires are believed to have a direct 

 and immediate influence on fecundity, whether of the 

 fields and fruit-trees or of women, similar to that 

 ascribed to the sun. 



A corresponding question arises as to the exact 

 operation of a famous Roman rite. The festival of the 

 Lupercal has been elaborately discussed by Mannhardt 

 and more recently with great care by Mr. Warde 

 Fowler. " On February 15," says the latter, " the 

 celebrants of this ancient rite met at the cave called the 

 Lupercal, at the foot of the steep south-western corner 

 of the Palatine Hill the spot where, according to the 

 tradition, the flooded Tiber had deposited the twin 

 children at the foot of the sacred fig-tree, and where 

 they were nourished by the she-wolf." There, after a 



